But with a smart home bridge, you might overcome many of these obstacles.
So, what is a smart home bridge, and do you need one?
How Do Smart Home Bridges Work?
As the name suggests, smart home bridges act as a bridge between one platform and another.
Think of this like a translator.
One smart gadget speaks French, and the other speaks Spanish, so one cannot understand the other.
But with the help of a bridge, this barrier can be overcome, allowing the two to communicate.
Some smart home bridges emulate smart platforms for cross-communication.
Be sure not to confuse smart bridges withsmart home hubs.
For instance, a bridge can provide a connection between your smart doorbell and your Wi-Fi web connection.
But we’ll be focusing on bridges that allow cross-platform communication here.
Types of Smart Home Bridges
Smart home bridges are not all one and the same.
There are two main types of smart home bridges: software-based and hardware-based.
Some popular software smart home bridges are Homebridge, IFTTT, and Scrypted.
Similarly, Scrypted also requires a constant operation.
IFTTT, on the other hand, doesn’t require coding and can be used by tech novices.
you’re free to use IFTTT via the smartphone app, which is available for Android and iOS.
HOOBs (Homebridge Out Of the Box) look like small Wi-Fi routers.
This small unit eliminates the need for complex coding as it runs Homebridge directly.
However,flashing an image onto a Raspberry Pirequires a higher level of technical knowledge.
